One million turtles have been released into a river at the Amazon border between Bolivia and Brazil in an attempt to preserve the species.
Key points: Climate change and human activity threatens the turtles' survival
Climate change and human activity threatens the turtles' survival Biologists and volunteers from Bolivia and Brazil have worked together to protect the species
Biologists and volunteers from Bolivia and Brazil have worked together to protect the species They mainly try to prevent turtles hatching where they are in danger of drowning
For years, Amazon River turtles have been losing the battle against climate change and human activity that threatens their ecosystem, directly affecting their survival.
"Today in the Guapore or Itenez River, we have a binational project for the protection and conservation of the species, especially the Amazon River turtle," Camila Ferrara, a technical supervisor working for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the region, said on Tuesday.
Since 2007 biologists and volunteers on the banks of the Itenez River in Bolivia and the Guapore on the Brazilian side have formed a binational project to protect the species.
Their job mainly consists of the removal of turtle nests hatching in the sand which are in danger of drowning if they do not act quickly.
Climate change and the increased inflows due to the construction of mega-dams in Brazil add to the problem of flooding during the rainy season.
River turtles inhabiting the Amazonian border between Bolivia and Brazil are also endangered due to the high demand for their meat and eggs.
The Itonamas, members of the Indigenous people of Versalles in Bolivia, protect 300 kilometres of virgin beaches so that turtles can reproduce safely.
Although it is customary for them to eat these turtles, these people are provided with food and security by the binational program and local authorities in an attempt to eradicate this consumption.
Despite the ban on consumption and poaching by Brazilian authorities, the controls have proved to be hard to enforce due to highly populated areas.
WantsToBeUnmade on December 12nd, 2021 at 20:12 UTC »
The article doesn't go into huge detail so I'll expand on what I was able to find elsewhere. The river is the Guapore River, which is 780 miles long. The turtles were all released together, but there was a reason for that. It is the largest spawning site for the species and a large communal nesting beach. According to the Post article 100,000 females laid their eggs on that beach, but it wasn't clear to me if that number is the current number or the number prior to the population decline. Either way, most of the breeding females lay their eggs on that beach, so releasing them all together makes sense.
The type isn't named at the species level (there is more than one thing called the Amazon River Turtle) but the young showed on a closeup on the New York Post website is Podocnemis expansa. They get to be quite large, 200 lbs is not unusual for them. They breed well in captivity, but grow slowly, so farming them for food isn't economically feasible. They are heavily exploited for their meat and eggs, and most used for that purpose come from the wild.
They don't say where the turtles were sourced from, but it's a popular model for headstart programs, where they collect hatchlings and raise them for a year or two before releasing them, so the majority probably came from there.
As for conservation, the Guapore River is a stronghold for the species, it is doing okay there, but in some systems it is doing quite poorly. The Orinoco River population went from around 100,000 breeding females in 1945 to about 1,000 at the turn of the millenium. While individual populations crashed, the world population is currently secure, but only due to conservation efforts like these ones. If those conservation efforts ended the species would likely be considered endangered or threatened.
WhoListensAndDefends on December 12nd, 2021 at 19:15 UTC »
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Important_Builder582 on December 12nd, 2021 at 18:33 UTC »
Go forth and prosper